


Purple and Yellow

by Barbaara_Babaar



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Coming Out, Discussions of sexuality, F/M, M/M, Making Out, distressed gay™, experimenting, he is also quite a fan of vaginas, mike wheeler likes dick, swinging both ways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 19:01:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19707508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barbaara_Babaar/pseuds/Barbaara_Babaar
Summary: Mike Wheeler is handling his raging hormones pretty well. That is, except for one of their main consequences: his newly discovered interest in...boys.





	Purple and Yellow

**Author's Note:**

> i'm not saying being gay is purely hormonal or anything. his new horniness just made him realize how much he likes dick.   
> | | |  
> my excuse for my increasingly dismal writing is my crippling depression. i hope you enjoy it anyway. please.

Hormones are not good for Mike Wheeler. Three years ago, at 13, he may have been tip-toeing into the cusp of puberty, but now he’s drowning in the deep end. Physical signs like excessive sweating, hair growth, and acne are kept well under control–El always tells him his skin is unfairly  _ luminous _ –and that’s  _ great. _ There’s just one icky little problem: his eyes. Or, better yet, that they can’t stop staring at boys. 

It started when two years ago he walked in on Billy Hargrove kissing Steve in Max’s kitchen. The sensuality of it made him quiver; he had never seen two boys together before and the fact that it made his heart ache terrified him.

He decided to suppress it. 

Unfortunately, that only made him subconsciously stare more and more and  _ more. _ It never occurred to him, after all, that his constant mental notes to  _ not  _ think of boys would make him… think about boys. Not only did his subtle curiosity to Billy and Steve grow, but to every single boy he saw. It was a nightmare. Puberty sucked. 

At age 16, he’s almost ready to tell El what he’s feeling. She should know, considering he’s cowered every time she tries to initiate sex with him because he can’t stop thinking about what he’s hiding. It’s hard, though, when he’s sure she knows just how terrible it is for a boy to like other boys. It’s hard when she loves him. 

“What am I supposed to do? I feel like she needs to know, right?” 

Mike lies precariously on Will’s bed and burrows his feet under the thin layer of blankets. Never did he dream of slipping up and telling any of his friends his incredibly icky secret; it just happened. One minute he was telling Will about his most recent trip to the public pool and the next, he was spilling how he had to keep his gaze off of Billy. It wasn’t exactly the worst that could happen–Will is gentle and blindly supportive, the opposite of Lucas, who would have had tons of questions–but in the moment, it had terrified him. 

Now, he’s telling him everything. Times have changed. Suddenly. 

“Yeah.” Will props himself up against his bed frame with a pillow. He is, it seems, in  _ thinking  _ stance. “That’s a pretty big thing to not tell someone.” 

There’s a falter in his voice that Mike just can’t place. “I’m kinda…kinda scared,” he says. “It’s not like I don’t like her anymore or anything. I just don’t want her to- to  _ not know  _ I’m…” 

“Yeah.” 

A probing tension sits beside them. It’s the kind of tense that feels life-threatening, as if it could squeeze their brains and hearts into a pulp. It’s purple and yellow, a contrasting, attracting force that brings a flush to their cheeks. It hurts. 

If they knew it infected both of them every day, maybe they wouldn’t be scared. 

Will takes a sharp breath and says, “want me to do anything?” 

Mike smiles a wibbly wobbly smile. “Could you, I dunno,  _ tell El for me?”  _

“She’ll think you’re joking.” 

“I wish I was.” 

The undulating tension expands. Mike feels the springy bed shift as Will moves over, as if he’s making room for it. At least, that’s what Mike wants to believe, because now Will’s shoulder is pressed right up against his and he’s holding his breath. He almost misses his timidity; he would never initiate contact so boldly before, not like this. 

“Tell her,” Will says. “Tell her soon. Tell her whenever you’re ready. If you want, maybe…” Mike’s stomach drops excitedly.  _ If you want, maybe we could see what kissing boys feels like.  _ “Maybe you could call her from my phone.” 

Mike can feel all the excitement drain out. “Yeah, I’ll- I’ll do that. Where is it? Maybe I’ll not pussy out with you here.” 

Will smiles, though it looks more like a smirk. Very  _ un-Will-like.  _ “I’ll be your moral support, right?” 

The phone rings for three hours before El answers it. Or maybe it rings for seven seconds. Either way, it’s belatedness sends a chill down Mike’s back. He thinks momentarily that the feeling can’t get any worse. When she finally does, though, he freezes. 

“What is it, Mike? Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, I’m okay.” 

If Will was in the same room, he’d stare at him and hope he tells him what to say. On his own, he’s a mess. On his own, he’s flustered and shaking. He can barely hold the phone up to his ear. 

She says, “C’mon babe, just tell me. I won’t be mad.” 

He can’t place just why, but his eyes fill with boiling hot tears. “You sure?” 

The air goes quiet, so quiet Mike can hear his heart pounding.  _ This is a mistake,  _ he thinks frantically.  _ I can’t do this, I can’t. I’m going to hang up. I’m going to hang up.  _

“Something’s really wrong, isn’t it?” Her voice is shaky now, too. “Tell me, I swear I won’t be upset. I swear. I’m not lying.” 

He doesn’t hang up. There’s something about hearing her voice that soothes him deeply. 

“Okay.” He bites his lip. “There’s this thing I like and it’s- it’s not a good thing and I don’t wanna keep it from you ‘cause it’s a really big thing but you’ll be…you’ll be mad, I know you’ll be mad-” 

“Mike- Mike calm down. What’s the thing you like?” 

The world simultaneously grows and shrinks around him, and hollows out. He’s hearing every single sound in Hawkins, every single one, every single step, every single breath, every single-

“Boys.” 

The word ripples in his still-watered mind. Everything is quiet but that. That and his dulled-out, rusty heartbeat, a turning gear. 

“Mike.” 

_ Why does her voice sound so angry and so not angry at the same time? How is that possible?  _

“Mike…Mike stop crying.” 

“I’m not crying.” Something cold tickles his cheek.  _ Maybe I am crying.  _

“Do you really think liking boys is a bad thing?” 

He blinks tears out of his eyes and leans his head back against the sturdy wall of the bathroom. “I mean, when everyone keeps telling you it’s bad, how can you not?” 

“They really don’t know what they’re talking about, right? They look at it and they think it’s different so they- they decide it’s  _ bad.  _ Just because it’s different they decide that.” The lack of disappointment or anger in her tone is absolutely baffling. “Plus…I like boys and I think it’s pretty cool.” He can hear her smile. It makes his insides warm up. 

“I like girls too, I just…I can’t stop thinking about boys now that I’m trying not to and I didn’t wanna  _ lie to you.  _ I still love you. I don’t mean that I don’t love you anymore just because I like  _ boys _ .” 

“Aw, Mikey, you love me?” she says teasingly. “I love you, too.” 

“You’re not mad?” 

“You didn’t lie about it and that’s a good thing.” 

_ “Mike? Everything okay in there?”  _

Will taps on the door gently and suddenly Mike is nervous again. There’s still something he’s not telling El, after all, and that thing is standing right outside. There’s only the paper-thin door separating them. 

_ “Yeah, Will, I’m good. _ El, can I do something?” 

“It depends on what it is. You’re not gonna get yourself murdered right?” 

“No it’s not that bad. Or maybe it is, I can’t tell yet. I just…can I try– _ Will, just go back to your room– _ being… _ being with  _ a boy. I wanna know what it feels like.” 

He anticipates a repeat of that brutal, itchy silence. Instead, he gets something completely and utterly unanticipated: “yeah,” she says. “Just don’t have sex with him please. I wanted to do that with you for the first time.” 

Her forwardness makes him squirm.  _ Sex,  _ he thinks.  _ Sex. “Don’t have sex with him.”  _ He shivers.  _ “I wanted to do that with you for the first time.” Fuck.  _

“I won’t. I promise I won’t. I just wanna…I need to try it or I’ll go crazy thinking about it.” 

“Do what you need to do.” 

“I will. Thank you. Love you.” 

He hangs up. 

  
  
  


Will and Mike sit back on his bed. Tension hugs tightly at the back of his neck. Not five minutes prior, he had told El he would try kissing a boy and now he thinks he must have shot too far. He didn’t think about if Will would kiss him and, more importantly, he didn’t think of how their lives would change if he agreed. The reassurance of a kiss would not last as long if Will found he hated him right after. 

“I heard what you were saying to El.” 

_ Wait.  _

Mike swivels around to face Will and tries to keep fear off his face. The only thought sprinting through his head, over and over, is  _ he knows he knows he knows he knows he knows-  _

“I wasn’t- I wasn’t meaning any-” 

“Can I try…with you?” 

Blood rushes up Mike’s neck immediately. He’d always gotten red easily, but not this kind. This is the uncomfortable, unforgiving kind that brings a boiling heat down between his legs. He can’t tell if he’s dying or leaning toward Will to kiss him. 

Two seconds pass and then he’s two inches from Will’s face, and he thinks both must be possible. He kisses Will, and shakes in his arms. 

It’s so, so clear to him now that this is where he’s meant to be; his lips fit almost as perfectly against Will’s as they do against El’s. Will is different, though. He’s more timid, like he, too, thought until this moment that kissing boys wasn’t allowed. His lips are soft, too, almost like El’s but they’re less experienced, and they keep biting at his. He’s passionate. 

By the time they’re rolling back onto his bed, they’re both flushed and sweaty. The knowledge that they won’t be having sex keeps Mike calm, but their frantic kissing drains him; every last bit of pent-up energy pools underneath them. Their movements give him enough release. 

He and Will roll around the bed like they’re wrestling. Neither know what they’re doing, but they go too fast to be awkward. He and El have definitely made out before, but never like this, never as if a dam is breaking inside them. Will kisses him like he’s giving a part of himself to Mike. 

It isn’t until Mike can feel Will’s arousal that he whispers that they should probably stop. “El wouldn’t let me touch you until we’ve already…” 

“Okay.” 

With much resistance from his gut, Mike detaches and rolls over so he’s lying next to Will. He’s trembling, and he can feel that Will is, too. In the five minutes they spent embracing, they’ve grown together. The half-foot separating them feels like a mile. 

Beside him, Will shivers. It’s theatrical and exaggerated and Mike can tell for sure that he isn’t really cold. He just needs…

Mike rolls to the side and pulls Will back against his chest. 

“It was like, so good El, you have no idea.” 

“I have an idea, Mike, I kiss you all the time.” 

Mike and El sit on Mike’s bed now, atop cool sheets and the most beautiful lack of tension either of them have ever seen. She’s toying with his fingers confidently, and pulling gently at each one. She says, looking up at him mischievously, “was it better than kissing me?” 

“What?! No!” 

“Has kissing girls been  _ ruined forever?”  _

“The truth is… _ I hate kissing girls now. They’re so icky and they have cooties and-”  _

Before he can finish, El kisses him, grinning, and pulls him onto her lap. She holds him with love. 

It turns out hormones might be treating him just fine after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> if the characters seem a bit OOC, that's because i was trying to display growth parallel to their age. but it might have seemed a lil wack and i'm sorry about that, bucko. i hope you thought it was a little bit good. drop some suggestions and i will try my best to deliver.


End file.
